2015

The EU wants to strengthen "economic policy coordination, convergence and solidarity" in the eurozone. It therefore proposes the creation of four Unions: an Economic Union, a Financial Union, a Fiscal Union and a Political Union. This cepPolicyBrief deals with the Financial Union which comprises a Capital Markets Union and a Banking Union supplemented by a common deposit guarantee scheme.

2015

The EU wants to strengthen "economic policy coordination, convergence and solidarity" in the eurozone. It therefore proposes the creation of four Unions: an Economic Union, a Financial Union, a Fiscal Union and a Political Union. This cepPolicyBrief deals with the Economic Union. Economic Union involves the creation of independent National Competitiveness Boards as well as stronger focus on employment and social policy.

2015

The EU Commission has submitted a proposal for a Recommendation on combating long-term unemployment in which the Member States are urged to set up a single point of contact to reduce red tape for the long-term unemployed. This agency will also conclude job integration agreements with long-term unemployed people setting down the rights and duties of both parties. Finally, employers will be involved in the reintegration in order to improve needs-based skills training for the long-term unemployed.

2015

The EU Commission wants to improve consumer information by rescaling energy efficiency labelling. The EU label, with its uniform scale of energy efficiency classes, provides a clear indication of how each product affects energy consumption by comparison with similar products.

2015

The EU Commission wants energy consumers to have a stronger position on the retail market. Thus, in future, consumers will be better able to compare energy supply contracts using independent sources of information – such as internet portals. In addition, private households will be more able to adjust their electricity consumption to take account of changes in price at different times of day. cep has assessed the individual measures.

2015

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has declared that the completion of a Digital Single Market is one of the priorities of his period of office. With the Digital Single Market Strategy, the Commission wants to make the EU the leader of the digital economy. A central pillar of this strategy is the building of a "data economy" (Big Data, cloud services, Internet of Things).

2015

The European Parliament has urged the EU Commission to “immediately” develop a new strategy to combat harmful alcohol consumption in the EU. In its resolution it already defines an array of concrete measures. The cep is assessing these measures in detail.